I understand why it's hard to believe (and I also realize that I've reported this as well, so perhaps there is some bias here on my part), but I can't see it being anything else.
Levine seems to think that the Yankees need a shit ton of parking spots and doesn't want to do away with that. I think he sees there are still 1-2 games every year where the required parking exceeds the new amount the Yankees would have coming out of this and he doesn't want to give that up. He doesn't strike me as a guy who would welcome behavioral changes that may just have to happen if this were to occur (i.e., less people drive and take transit, or some people will have to park further away than ideal, or some people have to do a combo of drive/transit).
Now, the one item in particular that I am really struggling with, and perhaps this goes in the direction of your thought, is this should easily be able to be settled with dollars. I'm not sure what exactly that amount would be and perhaps I don't fully comprehend the magnitude of what that amount would be, but here is how I see it:
- Yankees say they need a required number of parking spots and want that in the arrangement.
- Bondholders (Nuveen) say that the original agreement doesn't include a required number of parking spots (except for 600 spots, that required number isn't contested), just that certain lots would be made available
- Nuveen says that including a required number of parking spots would represent a new right and as the bondholders would be "owning" this New Company, that they aren't going to give that.
- I'm assuming they don't want to give up that new right because of financial interests.
So why doesn't Maddd/NYCFC then just pay whatever amount of money it is to Nuveen (on top of the $46.25m, which was originally $52.5m) that addresses the concerns of giving up this new right.
I would think whatever that additional payment is, would be less costs than continuing on with additional lobbyists, consultants, etc. searching for other sites alone. Not even mentioning the continued loss of goodwill among fans, potential delayed home opening start, etc.
I will add one more thing, I have continued to attend the CB4 meetings and its clear that they still want this to happen. The Housing and Land Use chair during the last meeting talked about how close they were to getting all this development, they hope the developers come back to the table, etc. etc. and added that they have heard nothing for months.
